Robit Oyj (ROBIT) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Very good afternoon. My name is Mikko Kuusilehto, and I'm the Group CEO of Robit. I'm today joined by our CFO, Ari Suokas, and we'll go through our quarter 4 as well as our full year 2025 financial figures. Like always in the past also, we'll have a Q&A session in the end of the presentation, and we will go through, firstly, by myself, the general figures and general sort of understanding of how our 2025 and Q4 went, and then Ari will go through the financial figures more in detail. Like always, we'll start with the disclaimer with regards to the forward-looking statements. If we look at 2025, the year was financially a struggle for us. We saw a steep decline in our revenue and that decline came through all the business areas as well as our sales areas. The sharpest drop was visible in our Australasian market. That being said, it's also fair to say that the market circumstances were relatively good throughout the year. The mining sector is doing really well at the moment on a global scale, and we definitely saw when having those discussions with our customers and our potential customers that the momentum in the mining sector is really strong. Unfortunately, we were not able to benefit from that good momentum in the market. When we look at the financial figures themselves, the orders that we received during 2025 decreased by roughly 10%, equating to a figure of just under EUR 80 million, a drop from roughly EUR 90 million in 2024. Our net sales dropped to EUR 78.8 million from roughly EUR 90 million in 2024. Like I said, the decrease was visible throughout all SBUs and all sales areas. Due to the poor performance on our top line, our comparable EBIT decreased to EUR 1.7 million from the EUR 2.5 million in 2024. The decline was clearly visible and clearly caused by the drop in our top line, but also we had some headwind from the currency side, which had a negative impact on our EBIT. On a more positive note, we did improve our net cash flow, and we were able to reduce the interest-bearing net liabilities during the course of the year. From our sustainability targets, our good momentum in decreasing the emission reductions continued, and we reached during the latter part of 2025, a level of 44.1% from the comparison year of 2020. Taking into account that our target for 2030 is minus 50%. Like I said, the reduction in our turnover was visible throughout the region, especially the big drop was coming from the Australasian market. When we look at the net sales share divided between the different regions, we can clearly see that we are really dependent on the EMEA region, covering roughly 56% of the revenue collected in 2021. If we then dig into the Q4, the last quarter of 2025, the downward trend with the revenue continued also during that quarter. On a more positive note, we were able to keep up the sales in the Americas region compared to the last quarter of 2024, and we were able to improve the revenue coming from the Down the Hole business sector during the last quarter of the year. On the other side, we had a steep decrease on our Top Hammer side as well as a decrease on the geotechnical business units. Our comparable EBIT for the last quarter was EUR 0.5 million compared to the EUR 0.8 million level that we were able to collect during 2024. Although we had done clear and massive cost-cutting operations during the course of the year, those were not sufficient to overcome the drop in our revenue, but though we can still see that those cost cuts had an impact on the profitability. If looking at the other metrics that we have on the sustainability side, besides the drop on the CO2 emission side, it's also worth to highlight the positive improvement that we have had on our PeoplePower index. The survey was conducted during the latter part of the year, and we were able to increase our global index from the 70.3% level in 2024 to roughly 72 points in 2025. If we then look at the innovations and offerings side, during last year, we were able to bring to the market also new products. But on a more generic level, it's fair to sort of say that on the DTH side, a good work that we have been doing together with our customers has led to the fact that we have been able to improve significantly performance of our H-Series hammers and have been able to provide also the market with new innovations such as the 18-inch DTH Hammer for the geotechnical side. On the Top Hammer side, we have been able to gain momentum with the Mbit series that was introduced during '25 as well as the extreme carbides on the bit side. Both of these have had an impact, though not a massive one yet, but we have seen good sort of good demand from the market and interest in these new products that we have been able to provide to the market.

Thank you, Mikko. I will go now through a bit more thoroughly the financial figures for the Q4 as well as the full year '25. And starting off with the key figures for both of these. The final quarter of the year was weaker than the comparison period despite the fact that there was a lot of positive market activity in the mining sector, like Mikko highlighted. Our net sales in Q4 '25 declined by 13.8% to EUR 18.4 million. In profitability, Q4 '25, our EBITDA percentage decreased to 7.1%. Our EBIT percentage in Q4 '25 decreased to 2.3%. And our Q4 '25 result of the period was EUR 0.0 million compared to last year, EUR 600,000. Our full year result of the period was minus EUR 0.2 million. With this profitability, there's 3 things that is good to understand. One, it is the negative impact of currencies that we faced during the '25, which had an impact of EUR 0.7 million compared to the '24 where we had a positive impact of EUR 0.6 million. Mikko highlighted the second topic what we have impacting the profitability that was the cost structure measures that we did and those had an impact during the second half of the year. And third thing that I want to highlight is during '25, we had a healthy margins, but our top line decreased too much to kind of mitigate or kind of that healthy margins would have come through to the profitability. Now looking at the Q4 '25, the net working capital. That is one of those things that developed positively. Our net working capital totaled to EUR 37.8 million. In inventories, we see a decline and our inventories ended up to EUR 37.8 million. Our receivables decreased to EUR 14.9 million. That's partially due to decline in sales, but also thorough actions in all the markets, ensuring that we collect our receivables. Our payables decreased to EUR 14.9 million. And net working capital percentage of last 12 months sales was 48% and that remained flat during the last quarters. Then Q4 '25 financial year 2025 operating cash flow. That is also a topic that Mikko highlighted and that developed positively. Our cash flow before changes in net working capital was EUR 1.2 million. Our operating cash flow was EUR 2.5 million and cash flow from financing activities resulted to minus EUR 2.9 million. In financial position, our cash and cash equivalents at the end of '25 were EUR 9.5 million compared to last year, EUR 9 million. And our total interest-bearing loans and utilized credit limits were EUR 24.6 million, including IFRS 16 liabilities of EUR 3.4 million. When it comes to our capital structure, that continued to strengthen. Our net debt decreased in '24 was EUR 15 million. Our net debt 12-month rolling EBITDA ratio was 2.91 compared to last year, 2.90. And we also mentioned during our Q3 at the half year results review that we expect that net debt to EBITDA will improve at the end of the year and that kind of expectation was reached. Our equity ratio remains strong at 52 percentage points. We renewed our financing agreement in June '25. That gives us the possibility and stability to focus to develop the business. And in Robit, our financing agreement will be having the maturity in June 2030. Loans from financial institutions at the end of Q4 '25 totaled EUR 21.1 million. The loan amortizations of biannually are in June and December, and those are EUR 1.5 million in those time slots during the year. And Robit has an interest rate swap to mitigate the interest rate fluctuation, and we have a EUR 10 million interest rate swap, which took effect on 30th of June '25 and is aligned with the long-term loan. Now I give the speech back to you, Mikko.

Thank you. Now when moving from the history to the future and looking at 2026, it's fair to sort of say that Robit has only one target for the year, which is the fact that we have to get back on the growth track. Like has been communicated also in the past, -- our go-to-market strategy is based on the utilization of a large global distributor network as well as doing some partial direct sales in certain selected markets. It's clear that when we look at the historical trend of our operations during the last couple of years, we have not been able to perform well in either strategies. Therefore, it's clear that during the coming year and during the coming months, our focus will be on the fact that we work closely together with our distributors to ensure that we have a face-to-face customer contact with the end users as well as our own direct sales encounters are with the end users so that we can gain more momentum into our sales. With more close workup with our partners, with more close contact with our end users and with more activity in the market, we do expect that to lead to a positive trend in the sales and ensuring that we get this downward trend of revenue development turn to a positive track in the coming future. In addition, when looking at the focus areas for this year, it's also fair to say that when looking at how the market has been developing during the last years, especially when we look at the global tariff situation as well as certain increases in raw materials, it's clear that we have to also have actions and methods how to try to mitigate those risks, which are coming from both the global tariffs, which are going throughout the world at the moment as well as the increases in raw material prices, especially when we look at the tungsten price, which has sort during the last 6 to 9 months, reaching unprecedented heights compared to the historical normal level of the past. Last but not least, if looking at the guidance for this year, we do estimate that the net sales in 2026 will increase and the comparable EBIT profitability in euros will also improve compared to the 2025 figures. Then if we look at the questions that have been put into the chat.

Yes. I propose that allow me to read these questions out loud and Mikko, then you can provide the answer. First question coming from, Aapeli. How does your sales funnel look like between the different customer segments? And how has this developed within the past year?

Yes. Okay. I won't be going into details with the sales funnel numbers. But coming back to what I said just recently with regards to the focus area, it's clear that there has to be a correlation between the sales funnel and the revenue development. And when looking at the history and when we look at what we are aiming to gain during the coming year or the running year, it's clear that the focus has to be in the fact that we are also able to improve the sales funnel. And I am a strong believer in the fact that through an active encounter with our end users and our distributors, we will be able to improve also the sales funnel, which will then in the end, lead to the improvement in the channel.

Thank you, Mikko. The second question from Aapeli. You expect demand in the construction industry to develop positively in the H2. Have you seen any positive signs? And if yes, which geographical areas are relevant to Robit.

Yes. We tend to sort of lean into this construction segment and give sort of assumptions on how the business will develop. And it's clear that it is a significant segment for us. When returning back and looking at how our turnover and revenue is divided between different regions, we are heavily dependent, like I said, on the EMEA region. And through that region also, we do see that the construction sector plays an impact in that revenue that we are gaining from that market. That being said, it is also visible in certain other market areas such as Asia where we also are active in the infrastructure sector. When looking at the development of that sector, are there any sort of positive signs that the change will come? I would say that when looking at the Nordic market itself, there are sort of weak signals at the moment that a better year might come out from 2026 compared to 2025. And then when you consider that how long it takes from the fact that we are getting orders into it sort of realizing in our revenue and when you take the seasonality effect of the construction sector, especially here in the Nordic countries, it's fair to say that, that sort of load will then be rather on the H2 side than the H1.

Thank you, Mikko. Next question, when do we expect the demand to pick up?

We are not limited geographically to the fact that the demand would be coming from a certain area. When you look at the market share that we have in all market areas where we are operating, our market share does not limit us from growth. So it's clear that we have certain market areas that we are focusing heavily on to gain momentum. But I do sort of expect that all regions in our portfolio will be performing better this year than last.

Thank you, Mikko. The next question is related to tungsten. Tungsten prices have soared. Have you been handling the situation? And are you able to move these to the end prices? Is there some kind of a lag between the price adjustment?

Yes, the tungsten price, which is a key raw material in the bids has likely put it there, soared during the last sort of 6 months. It's clear that this is an effect that and any impact that we must carry into the prices. We do not have those muscles to bear that cost increase, which has come. And we're doing the best we can to mitigate those risks and take actions so that we can ensure that we remain cost competitive in the market, but also ensure that we are not sacrificing the profitability due to this massive increase, which has happened during the last months.

Are there any cost pressures currently for financial year '26 that you are seeing?

Well, apart from the Tungsten side, I think generally, the cost pressure is the normal cost pressure, which is coming from the standard inflation and related topics. So otherwise, there's no sort of -- we don't sort of foresee any sort of other abnormal actions to come apart then what can be coming from the tariffs, but they are not in that sense.

The next question coming from Erkki. Are all the business segments with so low profitability? Or how much do they differ from each other?

Yes. I think we have not highlighted and we have not been giving out the business segment level profitability figures in the past. There is deviation between them and as well as there's, of course, deviation between different markets. But of course, we do take sort of clear and conscious look into those numbers and try to find ways how to improve all profitability figures when that is needed in -- whether it's the SBU side or whether it's geographies.

Thank you. I'll take the next question also from Erkki. You mentioned in a [indiscernible] event that all the segments are very different from each other. Wouldn't this mean that the segment reporting should be changed to also include profitability levels? So allow me to also answer this to build on your answer, a valid question. So far, we have decided that we will continue with the current reporting structure, which means that we will not provide the profitability of the SBUs. Now the next question from Erkki, if and when the construction industry does not develop positively in H2, the guidance will not hold and sales and profit will continue to decline. Have I understood your guidance correctly?

No. No. We -- when considering the market size and the focus areas and those market areas where we are focusing, it's, of course, clear that when looking at the historical -- and like I said earlier, we are really dependent on the EMEA region. The fact is that there's enough market also in the other segments to gain growth from. And it's also a fact that there's also a possibility for us to gain market share with the existing -- in the existing markets where we are operating. So of course, our actions are directed towards the growth, which is not just dependent on how the market is developing. In fact is, like I said earlier, the market share that we are having in our business regardless of the region is on that level, that there's plenty of room for us to gain also market share without any -- without taking into consideration the headwind or the tailwind which might be coming from different markets or segments.

Thank you. The next question coming from Aapeli. How do you see net working capital developing going forward if revenue grows according to guidance?

Yes. I think our actions will be directed towards the fact that we are able to keep up the positive development that we have had on the net working capital side.

Yes. I can also build on this one. So the net working capital percentage of the 12-month sales, I would expect that to be pretty similar level. However, understanding that if we gain more sales, we need the availability and that means a bit higher inventories with increased sales, the receivables would increase and the payables would most likely also increase to the need to acquire more material to the production. The second topic, why I expect the net working capital also to increase is the tungsten price, which will have an impact also to the raw materials as well as the end products. There aren't any further questions at this point. So thank you for everybody who was on the line, and thank you for all the very, very good questions.

Thank you.